A former high school water polo coach in Irvine, California has been sentenced to 15 days of community service after pleading guilty to statutory rape.
The OC Register reports that Coleman Pickell was sentenced to those 15 days of community service but no jail time. He’ll also have to serve four years of probation.
Pickell was a volunteer swim coach and junior varsity boys water polo coach at Irvine High School. The 23-year-old met the victim in the summer of 2015. Prosecutors say Pickell and the girl “engaged in sex acts on multiple occasions in September 2016.” Pickell allegedly took the girl to a hotel room in early October, but the girls parents found out she was at the hotel and called the police, per MyNewsLA. Pickell was arrested shortly thereafter, and the Irvine Unified School District cut all ties with Pickell at that point, noting that he would “no longer coach or have contact with students at University High School or through any Irvine Unified school.”
Originally charged with six felony counts, Pickell pleaded guilty on April 17 to one felony count of sexual intercourse with a minor who is three years younger than the perpetrator. The girl was 17, and a few months away from her 18th birthday, Pickell’s lawyer noted in the MyNewsLA piece. The other five felony counts were dismissed with Pickell’s guilty plea.
15 days community service? Are you kidding me? It doesn’t matter if she was one day away from 18, that’s an absurd sentence.
Sept – Oct & almost 18 . Are Californian late teens really this pure? Who knew.